"but his presence in Copenhagen through Thursday will be considered TriMet work days."

Oh he's working there.

That's nice.

It's who you know, not what you know.
(I bet you already knew that Jack!)

I trust that he took the streetcar to Copenhagen and didn't soil the atmosphere with jet exhaust?

In these days of massive technological advances, why cannot what Mr. Hansen needs to do in Copenhagen, or wherever else in the world he needs to be, be done with electronic transmissions...like utilizing the digital computer interfaces?

There ARE ways to do this without crapping in everybody else's air to get there, y'know.

What a hypocrite.

God save us all. We'll have to literally launch ourselves into the sun someday to escape the goofy Portland Way nonsense.

That's okay ... I just had the most frustrating exchange with a PSU prof who claims the state's economic woes and lack of competitiveness are because of the lack of investment in all things govt. Oy vey!

Copenhagen's an ironic joke--and most of the world thinks so. Only the popular press pays it any serious heed.

Attention:

It's almost safe for all of the closet skeptic to come out.

By the time the fools and liars at Copenahugen get done the coast will be clear.

Welcome friends

Have you considered reading Oregon teacher Greg Craven's book, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" My offer still stands -- if you buy that book and don't think it was worth your $10.50, I'll buy your copy from you.

http://www.powells.com/ppbs/34124_1468.html

George -
Let me know your address so I can send you the book, I need the money; will you pay shipping charges too?

Once they tax us into living like well-oiled sardines in walkable, liveable, multi-use, high-rise environments favored by the highly-leveraged development crowd, there will be a new scientific finding -- global warming is caused by urban heat islands. And the path to saving the world is to abandon city centers and disperse humanity over the globe as widely as possible to leverage the absorbent properties of the natural ecosystem.

Once they tax us

"They" is us.

The best part of Copenhagen is that it brings the non-thinkers out of the woodwork. They conflate everything with the word "environment" attached to it, act as if there's a mystical cabal of "environmentalists" out to enforce a new Communist/Socialist Manifesto upon the economy and people.

Folks, Copenhagen is mostly a bunch of politicians and pedestrian "experts" like the Trimet guy getting together to do what they do best--little. There's nothing more to it than that; and transnational corporations are calling the shots now, anyway, not politicians. Didn't you get the memo? Or were you unaware who was doing most of the polluting and environmental decimation?

Georg,
Have you considered reading wattsupwiththat.com threads?

They cover, in clear detail, how Greg Craven is embracing a fraud.
His "What's the Worst That Could Happen?"
notion is an extension of AGW propaganda which avoids both the realities of our climate and the effects of the many policies advocated to address the fraud.

The last few dozen threads, and the 1000s of comments, at WUWT remove any and all doubt about the fraud.
Well before ClimateGate exposed the rigged and sloppy science underbelly
AGW was unraveling. Despite the perpetual distorting campaign by realclimate.com run by the perpetrators in climatgate.

Even today's story in the O about the local scientist unintentionally reveals a whopper in the AGW camp.

"Clouds, it turns out, could increase or decrease as the planet warms, and their presence could boost global warming or reduce it."

The IPCC models assume our CO2 emissions trigger increased water vapor resulting in the predicted warming with no cloud cooling.

Top to bottom the AGW is full of this sloppy and manipulated process.

eco--what I worry most about Copenhagen isn't everybody getting together and doing little, but that some of those over there have the authority to raise our fees and taxes under the guise of saving the environment. I agree that we need to pollute less, but do we want to follow Fred Hansen, Randy, and Sam down that path, or do we want to come up with a more rational plan?

I agree that we need to pollute less, but do we want to follow Fred Hansen, Randy, and Sam down that path, or do we want to come up with a more rational plan?

Honestly, the "rational" plan would be to do whatever it takes, economically or otherwise, to not destroy our own habitat and thereby ourselves.

In other words, the path's fairly clear: environment trumps economics. Because without environment, we die. Without a massive, over-consumptive, detached fron reality megacorporate-controlled economy, we still live.

Nevermind the fact that we're already killing ourselves through pollution, economic oppression, and environmental degradation. 25,000 die in Africa because of an American corporation? Big deal! A few thousand kids in America die due to air pollution from corporate manufacturing plants? Who cares? These aren't problems that can be solved in Copenhagen. They're solved by people making society-altering choices to not participate in the destruction.

Eco:

Can you name some a few of the "transnational corporations" that are running the world?

Curious minds want to know (and I may apply to work for one of them so I too can run the world).

Can you name some a few of the "transnational corporations" that are running the world?

I didn't say "running the world", I said a "megacorporate controlled economy" and "transnational corporations are calling the shots".

Here's one:

Monsanto
http://twilightearth.com/2009/05/the-world-according-to-monsanto-full-documentary/

The story of Monsanto alone, fully understood, encapsulates everything that I'm saying here.

Folks, a handful of corporations control almost three-fourths of *all* world trade.

By "megacorporate controlled economy" and "transnational corporations are calling the shots", I mean this: when it comes to tne enviroment, megacorporations generally do what they want and make public policy through influence. Who do you think's largely dictating health care debate, for example? Just a ideological disagreement amongst senators?

Well one thing for certain is that it is a disgrace that someone running this quasi-public transit agency is dithering around all over the world while the agency is circling the drain. Bus routes getting cut during the peak cold season, light rail that doesn't work when you need it the most, broken ticket machines ignored, top heavy in salaries and benefits, a new WES rail service millions in the red and still barely being ridden, escelating fares and taxes to cover all their greed and incompetence, and they'll be back at the public trough for the next blatant scam!
Fire Fred, fire every do-nothing executive in that mockery of an agency and retain only technical, nuts and bolts hard-working individuals who know something about meeting public transit needs and who can keep the machinery functioning.

Native, talk to Jack -- if he buys your copy and doesn't think it was worth the read, I'll buy it from him.

Ben, you appear to find WUWT.com a convincing source. I find them less convincing than you do.

Your "whopper" is just another datum that, yes, climate is quite complex. I will certainly acknowledge that there is a chance that this all turns out fine absent any effort on our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Will you acknowledge the same -- that there is a chance that, absent greenhouse gas emissions, we will destabilize the climate and take our chances with whatever results?

Sam Smith has a nice summary of things to remember when considering environmental threats:

"What baseball, poker, and the stock market can teach us about climate change"

http://prorev.com/2009/12/what-baseball-poker-and-stock-market.html

Fred Hansen's speech to the Copenhagen crowd:

"As the General Manager of the transit agency for the greenest city in the United States, we have made significant investments in our transit system to reduce carbon emissions.

"Buses contribute heavily to carbon emissions, and we have taken steps to reduce the number of buses. Now, this has the minor setback of promoting single-occupant motor vehicle transport but we are confident that more and more folks will shift to carpooling or other modes of transport, or will move out of the Portland area as transport becomes increasingly difficult.

"We have built an extensive light rail and streetcar system, powered not by our world renowned hydroelectric system but by a coal fired power plant located 200 miles away in sparsely populated Eastern Oregon. This allows the carbon emissions from the transit mode that we do favor to be sent hundreds of miles away - thus reducing direct emissions in the Portland metro area and allowing us to have pristine clean air.

"We decided against widening a major Washington County freeway and spent $166 million on a commuter rail line. Now, it's only functional for seven hours a day, five days a week, and the ridership isn't where we'd like it, but we're confident as soon as the economy picks up we're going to see massive residential and commercial growth in our suburbs Tualatin and Wilsonville. Now we don't have many buses in Tualatin but we will rely heavily on carpools and work shuttles; and Wilsonville actually started their own bus system because TriMet couldn't deliver and many folks will use their buses or the nearly 500 parking spaces there.

"Finally, we are taking great strides to allow our transit supervisors to ride in heavy SUVs which are hybrid vehicles. We have a bunch of Ford Escape Hybrids and even a couple Toyota Prius Hybrids that I and my top managers will drive to appointments. Now I know we could just ride the bus out front of my office but when I have my own car, it's much faster and convenient. And our Supervisors need the extra space that an SUV affords; even though they are not permitted to give stranded riders assistance so they never carry passengers.

"In conclusion, I think TriMet is really headed towards a sustainable future with our investments in rail and hybrid automobiles."

The wrong Hansen is in Copenhagen. It should be James Hansen, but he has elected not to go, for reasons worth exploring.

There is also another Denmark. This one is in OR, on the southwest coast, below Bandon on 101. There is hardly anything noticeably rotten in this Denmark. You can visit with very little CO2 emission by going here:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

Scroll down to the Public Media Resources on the right side of the home page. When you arrive at the page to which you will be transported, click on the individual program titles to listen or to read the scripts.

And the ironic joke of Copenhagen is already playing itself out:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/08-3

And if you do a bit of reading around and critical thinking today, you'll see why rich nations did it. Hint: corporate influence.

"you'll see why rich nations did it."

Why do rich nations have to do anything? If they had a better-constructed case for global warming than Al Gore's pic-tionary or some UN guy insisting we have to do something now (a la Bush going to Iraq), then it might fly.

I am NOT denying the potential of global climate change, I am only saying we need a bit better prosecution than "Trust us and do as we say."

Good point Steve. Global Warming is just like the Iraq War-TRUST ME!

Steve, you've made the same comment before. You know better--you must, given your obvious interest in the topic. You know there's far more going on than some faceless organization saying "trust me". If you want to be skeptical, fine, but pretending that your skepticism is due to there being no serious body of evidence of problems other than somebody saying "trust me" is seriously disingenuine.

Friedman on following the Cheney formula for risk management on climate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/opinion/09friedman.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Amy Goodman has been broadcasting Democracy Now! live this week from inside the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Her program is aired on KBOO (90.7 in Stumptown) from 7-8AM; it will continue next week. So far, Fred Hansen has not been heard on Democracy Now!, which is the sole community or "public" broadcasting effort from inside the Bella Center.